[okfn-discuss] An interesting question about open data for local government.

Wed Oct 10 17:52:00 UTC 2012

For formats, I agree that being too prescriptive can be a problem as standards evolve. However, some simple recommendations could go a long way: 

* Don't use PDFs
* Use something open and common (e.g. csv over excel)
* Do your best to describe your data

Maybe just asking for well-used web standards would be a plus.

-Z 

-- 
Zach Beauvais | @zbeauvais (http://twitter.com/zbeauvais)
z.beauvais at gmail.com (mailto:z.beauvais at gmail.com)
http://zachbeauvais.com

On Wednesday, 10 October 2012 at 18:46, Mr. Puneet Kishor wrote:

> 
> On Oct 10, 2012, at 7:47 AM, Luis Villa <luis at tieguy.org (mailto:luis at tieguy.org)> wrote:
> 
> > Isn't the correct answer "specifying any particular formats or
> > specifications is a recipe for having an obsolete bill within years or
> > months"?
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> Not necessarily. As I noted on the Quora page, formats come and go, and there is no doubt better and more suitable formats will be invented in the future. More important than specifying the format is to insist that whatever format is used, it should be free, open and well documented, and if it requires any tools to use it optimally, the tools should also be free, open and well documented.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 7:42 AM, Zach Beauvais <z.beauvais at gmail.com (mailto:z.beauvais at gmail.com)> wrote:
> > > Quora sent me this question [1], which I think is of interest to the OKFN:
> > > 
> > > If you were making a bill about open data for a local government, what sort
> > > of specifications and formats would you include in the bill?
> > > 
> > > And it's starting out with a few interesting answers in situ.
> > > 
> > > This subject might be a good post/paper for people to pass on to civil
> > > servants/local representatives with a step by step guide to transparency?
> > > 
> > > Best,
> > > -Z
> > > 
> > > [1]:
> > > http://www.quora.com/Open-Data/If-you-were-making-a-bill-about-open-data-for-a-local-government-what-sort-of-specifications-and-formats-would-you-include-in-the-bill
> > > 
> > > ---
> > > Zach Beauvais | @zbeauvais
> > > z.beauvais at gmail.com (mailto:z.beauvais at gmail.com)
> > > zachbeauvais.com (http://zachbeauvais.com)
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
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> > > 
> > 
> > 
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